Rembrandt paintings dumped in shrubbery as heist foiled
Two priceless Rembrandt paintings are feared damaged after they were found dumped in soaking, muddy undergrowth following a heist from a south London art gallery.
Police were continuing to hunt the brazen thief, who is thought to have targeted the works of art in order to claim a ransom from insurers.
The paintings were stolen on Wednesday night, local time, from the Dulwich Picture Gallery, which has been hosting a major Rembrandt exhibition featuring more than 30 works by the Dutch master.
Although police and the gallery refused to confirm which two works had been targeted, the exhibition included some of his most famous paintings, including Girl at a Window and The Pilgrims at Emmaus, which was on loan from The Louvre.
While the thief managed to get out of the gallery with the paintings, he abandoned them in the grounds after realising he had triggered the alarm. They were recovered by police and security staff, but were being assessed by experts as to any potential damage.
The break-in occurred around 11.30pm when the thief entered the grounds of the gallery and managed to force entry into the building.
The gallery, which was set up in 1817 and is England’s oldest public art gallery, has been the scene of a number of heists in the past, most famously in 1966 when eight paintings, including three by Rembrandt, were stolen.
The gallery also has an entry in Guinness World Records for being the custodian of the most stolen picture in the world – a little Rembrandt portrait which had been stolen four times, most recently in the Eighties. The painting was so well known in the art world that thieves found it impossible to sell.
During the latest raid, the thief triggered an alarm and police arrived at the scene just after 11.30pm and spotted the suspect in the grounds.
An officer gave chase but when he was challenged the suspect turned and sprayed him in the face with an unknown substance before escaping.
The officer, who was unhurt, then began searching the grounds and discovered one of the paintings abandoned close by. A short time later the other missing painting was found by security staff hidden in shrubbery within the grounds of the gallery. It came as a sixth person was arrested in connection with the theft of a golden lavatory worth an estimated £4.8 million (NZ$9.6m) from Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire. Thames Valley Police said a 35-year-old man, from London, was arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods yesterday morning.
Officers were called to a burglary at Winston Churchill’s birthplace on September 14 where the lavatory, named America, had been installed as an artwork.
Christopher Marinello, one of the world’s foremost experts in recovering stolen works of art, said of the Rembrandt thefts: ‘‘In 30 years of working in this field I have only ever come across one incident in which a world famous work of art was stolen to order.’’ Bendor Grosvenor, presenter of the BBC’s Britain’s Lost
Masterpieces, said: ‘‘It is more likely that the thief was intending to try to claim a ransom because unfortunately in the art world there is a habit of people being willing to pay to recover priceless items.’’
The gallery said the intruder was detected by the gallery’s ‘‘robust security systems’’ and the swift response of the Metropolitan Police enabled their recovery. A spokesman added: ‘‘Our senior experts and advisers are working with curators to assess the intrusions on the paintings.’’